Two DB skills are better than one and can expand your potential compensation scale. If you've had experience with Oracle and now are starting or want to learn DB2 Universal Database, this article will help you leverage your previous experience and put you on the fast track for learning how to move data from one machine to another, or from one platform to another.

I like both of these DB systems, though I have only tinkered with them. Does anyone know how MS SQL server knowledge transfers to DB2? That is the path I am moving on. I guess I should start digging around more on the IBM site.

Are made to make you suffer. DB2 might be very good, still it's an IBM product. IBM products will make your ROI poor in the short and the long run I'm afraid. We've seen this so many times before, and IBM is really just a question of spending loads of money and having things look good because it's "IBM". but per dollar it's almost always a bad buy.

IBM products are made to support standards very well. DB2 used to take a lot of heat because it hadn't deviated very far from the SQL standards to support things like sequences and identity columns. While Oracle and Microsoft have embraced, extended, and in some cases mutilated, standard SQL, IBM has tried to remain very close to the spec. If everyone developed their products with this same design philosophy, it'd be a lot easier to port apps between the vendors.

For experienced db admins, IBM has a few tutorials on learning DB2. They cover administration, syntax, terminology, and so on.

@Anonymous troll: IBM products are almost always a good buy, because IBM's support, in the rarer case that you need it, is superb.

"I like both of these DB systems, though I have only tinkered with them. Does anyone know how MS SQL server knowledge transfers to DB2? That is the path I am moving on. I guess I should start digging around more on the IBM site."

A word of advice, if you are going to learn one database, learn Oracle. In regards to how MS SQL compares to either, very poorly. MS SQL is a great database but it really is in a completely different league. Oracle is at least 10 times more powerful but also 10 times more complex. It is a difficult move but it is a worthwile move. I've never ever heard of a full-time MSSQL DBA while I've never heard of a true Oracle DBA doing anything else but taking care of Oracle.